Sergio Pérez on his performances for Red Bull

      On the Oso Trava podcast Sergio Pérez recalled his experience racing for Red Bull Racing as Max Verstappen’s teammate...

      Sergio Pérez: “The team principal Christian Horner was brutally honest during our first meeting. He said, ‘We field two cars because we have to field two cars. But this project is built for Max — he’s our talent.’

      Yes, I had a pretty decent car, but I was working under extremely difficult conditions. Being Verstappen’s teammate is not easy, and being his teammate at Red Bull is the most thankless job in all of Formula 1.

      At the start of the 2022 season the car was too heavy with a forward-shifted balance, but very stable, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. I remember that at that time on the simulator I was faster than Max. I arrived at the weekend intending to win the race — and everything went smoothly.

      Then upgrades arrived, and all of them were aimed at helping Verstappen. The car lost stability, I didn’t know how it would behave in a corner, I was only thinking about not getting into an accident. I could no longer control it 100%, incidents began to happen.

      In 2023 the car became more stable. Max would win one race, I would win another. After four races we each had two wins, we were equal in speed. But then Red Bull again brought updates that made the car less stable — and I could no longer control it.

      Who was to blame for that? So why did they keep featuring me in their commercials if they were doing everything against me?

      The team criticized me for everything. If I turned out to be faster than Max, that was a problem; if slower, that was a problem. At Red Bull, basically everything was a problem. At some point I realized I couldn’t do anything about it, stopped asking questions, and just tried to make the best of the situation.

      At our last meeting I also told Horner frankly how hard it had been for me and asked, ‘Christian, what are you going to do if Lawson doesn’t work out?’ He replied, ‘Well, we always have Tsunoda.’ ‘And what if something goes wrong with Yuki as well?’ I asked. ‘We have plenty of drivers,’ Horner answered me.”